Dominic Fishback on ‘The Swarm’ and Balancing Celebrity and Game

Whether you’re a singer, actor, or some other craft in the entertainment industry, with success often comes celebrity, and with celebrity comes extremely passionate fans. It’s clear that N’Ja has one in Dre’s Royand Fishbeck has amassed quite a bit over the years, too.

Revisiting her time as a theater student at Pace University, Fishbeck noted the one thing no amount of education in the world could have prepared her for when she first became a successful professional actress: celebrity. Here is how she put it:

“The art of being a movie star and being an actor I think are different things and I think it’s very important in school because I think they want to teach you the craft. They say it doesn’t matter. Glory doesn’t matter. Celebrity doesn’t matter. Or maybe not, but if you ignore it, then you may not be ready for [it] when it comes to.”

Continuing down that path, I asked Fishback about a misconception about fame that she wished she knew more rising stars about. Here’s what she said:

“There is definitely glamour in the industry. Being an actor is glamorous. You can wear all these cool things, see all the cool people, go to premieres and stuff, but on top of that, you work 17 hours a day on set. You sometimes do six-day weeks. Making Transformers, I’m really in the jungle, I’m afraid, I don’t know, poisonous frogs and things that can kill you in an hour. It’s real. It’s a game, but it’s real. and it does take a toll. So sometimes I think one of the hardest things is that we want to act when it’s about action, but you end up acting outside of action as well. Because let’s say today I’m sad, something happened, but now you have all these people waiting for you to have a good experience of getting to know you. And they are not wrong in wanting it! They admired you, they watched you, they want to feel good about meeting you. Also, you’re human, so take action and then say cut and then act again and make sure the whole swarm of people is over, no pun intended. [laughs]like a whole team of different people who just want to say hi and so you try to give them everything you have and then give everything you have on screen and it’s not always easy.”

From our very first interview in 2018 The hate that you give, Fishbeck has always come across as someone who prioritizes growth and self-improvement, whether it’s within her career or on a more personal level. The tool she uses to do this? visualization boards. But this year, for the first time in a long time, she didn’t complete her annual visualization board. She explained:

“For the last six or seven years, I’ve been putting together a visualization board at the end of the year to move on to the start of a new one. Maybe by January 3rd I’m usually done with this to say that’s it. But the first time, my visualization board, I didn’t finish it, and I didn’t feel compelled to throw something at it to beat some clock. I just thought, you know what? I did it and I’m just going to wait and see. I think I’m more open to not controlling things, but to letting things flow and see what happens. So let’s see! Maybe next year I’ll come back to it.”

As someone who often sees leaving a task as an unfinished failure, Fishbeck’s willingness to change that tradition is extremely inspiring. She added, “In other ways, I’m working on myself, so maybe this is the first time with a visualization board.” [where] I will be guiding the visualization board, not it is somehow guiding me.”

When it comes to the evolution of her work on set, she makes great strides in acting on the importance of speaking up and making sure her voice is heard when she identifies something that can change a scene for the better. She explained:

“Ultimately, when I feel like I can’t film a scene, it’s because I’m too afraid to speak up, I guess, or just speak up and ask a question. I think that if this is the case, the only way to overcome this is to talk about [it]. I feel like this happens in life in general. But if there is a stage and I kind of don’t work, or maybe they have already decided that they will block the light here and the camera here like that, now I don’t want to be an actor who comes and [says]”It really doesn’t make sense.” But you must! And if it doesn’t change, then fine. But at least you talked about it and you don’t have to go to bed thinking I missed the moment?”

Fishback was especially active on Roy. Actually two big ways! She was originally offered the role of Dre’s sister, Marissa, but Fishback felt drawn to Dre herself and followed her intuition by offering to switch roles for Roy co-author Donald Glover. “Donald is like, if you want this role, you’ll get it.” She continued:

“He said: “Well, why do you need this role?” And I said, “Well, as an actor, I never want to catch up with myself.” I don’t even want to know what I’m going to do next. I think about myself as a child, watch TV and say: “I want to be a versatile actor, and what does that mean?” And I have to go to the inner child who wanted to be an actor, who watched Monster with Charlize Theron, who watched Boys Don’t Cry with Hilary Swank, or watched Heath Ledger as the Joker, or whatever, and wanted to do work with characters. And finally, getting the opportunity to do so was exciting and intimidating. It was not easy for me to do this. As soon as I got it, I was like, “Oh man, what have I done? I don’t even know the rest of the series. What should I do? And I had to record myself and identify the moments that scared me and why. Is this a real fear for me or is it a social idea or a social fear that I pretend to be? For example, what would anyone else perceive? What will they think of me? Such questions. And if I do that, then I’m basically letting myself go to jail because of my own artistry, and I couldn’t risk the chance to do it, so I had to risk it another way.”

In addition to expressing interest in playing the show’s main character, Fishbeck also talked about another possibility that she thinks will impact the production for the better, which is recognition of the producer’s role on the show.

“[Co-creator] Janine Nabers [asked] me: “Well, what do you need to do a show?” And I said, “I need to be the producer of the show.” Because for me, the type of actor that I’ve always been - and again, I would do the same job regardless of that title, but I know I do a lot for the story, for the characters. I never only care about my character arc, I care about the whole project. And so with that, where it’s really going to be Dre, Dre, Dre all the time, then I knew that I would put in a lot of work and a lot of care, and that I deserve. I deserve it! And that was what I had to [be] like, “Oh, you don’t want to ask that. Stop playing petty.” It’s like we have one life to live here, we might as well do it big. Make it big or go home baby!”

Interested in learning more about how Fishback’s craft has evolved and how she continues to succeed in film and television? Be sure to watch her latest episode of Collider Ladies Night in the video at the top of this article, or you can listen to the full uncut conversation in podcast form below: